Battleship Potemkin

"Comrades the time has come when we must speak out." Vakulinchuk

☆☆☆☆☆ Iconic 


Battleship Potemkin (1925) is poetic film editing on a grand scale.

Directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein.

Starring Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barsky, Grigori Aleksandrov among many others.

Sergei ushered in modern editing techniques to silent films with the soviet film makers called film montage. Instead of images rolling out smoothly film montage has you edit a film so that you contrast different images to solicit a certain reaction from viewers. In one scene you see cared citizens, then Sergei cuts to the troops firing. Your mind then fills and reacts emotionally to the edited sequence. Luis Bunuel in Un Chien Andalou (1927) had a slightly different editing approach then Eisenstein in that his sequences were complete and utterly different images as in a dream. Both Sergei and Bunuel understood the power of editing to move and manipulate an audience.

Eisenstein has to be viewed with an understanding that it was made as a propaganda film. As such it may seem outdated to modern audiences, which does not diminish in any way Sergei's genius as a film maker.

In the scene below I love the shadows that the armed soldiers cast as the women carrying her sick and wounded child goes up the steps for their sympathy and compassion. Notice how Sergei uses film montage editing by inserting images of crowds begging for mercy, clenched fists and finally the fatal volley of shots that kill the woman and her child and causes the masses gathered to run for their lives. The story is beautifully told almost without words.

Film Scene

Trivia - The film was released in Moscow in 1925 at the same time that Douglas Fairbanks film, Robin Hood. It was a close race, but Robin Hood won by a slim margin.

Original Film Trailer

Original Script

Un Chien Andalou

"Dali and I made a silent film about our dreams." Bunuel

☆☆☆☆☆  Masterpiece

Un Chien Andalou (1929) is a silent short film masterpiece that revolutionized, scandalized, and forever changed cinema.

Directed by Luis Bunuel and co-written by Luis and Salvador Dali.

Starring Simone Marueil, Pierre Batcheff, Luis Bunuel and salvador dali among many others.

Bunuel and Dali showcased the potential of cinema to be more than just stories with narrative. It is a filmed with visuals and stories that don't make sense.

The key to understanding Un Chien Andalou is that it mirrors our dream world. Both Bunuel and Dali said they made it like their dreams. Luis was staying at Salvador's house in Paris. Bunuel told Dali about a dream he had of a cloud that sliced a full moon, like a razor slicing through an eye. Dali then told Bunuel about his dream of ants coming out of a hole in the palm of his hand. Dali suggested they start the movie right there. Bunuel asked his mother for a little money to make the short film. Dali and Bunuel wrote the screenplay while Bunuel acted and directed it. The film was completed in a few days. Luis and Salvador had only one rule; they would only film irrational images and not try to explain them. Just as their dreams had no logic or order so does their completed masterpiece.

I understand Bunuel on a spiritual level. When you watch Un Chien Andalou or especially Bunuel's later films, let the images Luis gives you, help you create your own story. Bunuel's images can mean anything you want them to mean, just like your dreams, which can be interpreted anyway you want. Make this irrational film, as rational as you would your dreams. Enjoy!

Film Scene

Trivia - The priest who is being dragged with the piano is Salvador Dali.

Film Trailer